Laguna Woods church shooting 'politically motivated hate crime' targeting Taiwanese, sheriff alleges
The suspect in the Laguna Woods church shooting Sunday appeared to be motivated by political hatred directed at the Taiwanese community, Orange County sheriff’s officials said Monday.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun said he was booked on one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder. Cheng charged the gunman and attempted to disarm him, “which allowed other parishioners to then intercede,” Barnes said.Officials alleged that the suspect secured church doors with chains and tried to disable locks with superglue. The suspect also attempted to nail at least one door shut, according to Barnes. Bags containing magazines of ammunition, as well as several Molotov cocktail-like incendiary devices were found at the scene.
Regarding the evidence recovered by law enforcement indicating the shooter was motivated by the political divide between China and Taiwan, Huang demurred, saying he was just hearing the information as well. But he strongly defended Taiwan as a free, democratic country. At Gate 7 to Laguna Woods Village on Monday, a handful of locals gathered, cellphones poised to videotape any comings and goings across the street at the church.
“This is global now,” she said. “We have people calling us from China trying to figure out what happened.” Afterward, he attended to churchgoers by passing out water and helping them to their seats. He described Geneva as “a place where we all know one another” and said while being scared yesterday, he’s eager to resume working.
The son of a churchgoer said his mother was leaving the luncheon early to go to a friend’s house, when she saw a few exits locked from the outside. As she left she saw a man chaining the last door, the son recalled his mother telling him. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department recovered two handguns from the scene, officials said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the weapons recovered at the scene are commercially available. The exact types were not released.
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